Here's What I'll Do With My Stuff

Yesterday on Twitter, I tweeted when my items from ThoughtOut.biz came.  

I made the online purchase on Saturday, January 24/09 and it showed up at my office on Friday, January 30/09.  That in itself is quite amazing considering the site says "expect 2 - 6 weeks for delivery".  And that's including crossing the border into Canada!

The first reply I got was from @div_conspiracy "cool, what are you going to do with it?" which is where this post is stemmed from.

Before I get into that, I'll tell you that I've been planning for some time to get something from Thoughtout.biz for awhile now.  I was always debating between the PED·3, the PED·3 Auto, and the NAJA King.  I'd lean towards one, then wish for the other, delaying my decision to purchase.  Recently I came across this review of the PED·3 & the NAJA King.  After reading it I said to myself, "Screw it, get both the NAJA King & PED·3"  So I treated myself, and here I am...

Here's my setup/plan to use these:

The PED·3 will be on my desk for any iPhone usage.  Whether it just be syncing, charging, listening to music, or watching something.  I used to have a 'charging station' on my desk which was nice, I just needed something more 'modern looking'.

The NAJA King is going to be more of my 'mobile' iPhone stand.  Whether I am sitting on the couch, take it to bed, or take it to work.  In some of the pictures below, I was watching videos while doing dishes (well 'faux' doing dishes anyways).  It's great for using the Remote app when I'm around the house.  I even plan to use the NAJA King while driving because the XTrail has this perfect area for the coil where the face can stick out.  Hey, I wonder if it would fit on the bike ;-)  I'd be tempted to try...but don't think I'd ever use it on the motorcycle - I may never see my iPhone (in one piece) again.

My old 'charging station' will now be where I charge my iPhone if I don't need to sync it.

Now we just need the Canadian iTunes store to get some good TV shows.  There's only so many times I can watch 'Dr. Horrible' (iTunes Link)  & Movie Previews.

I'm really stoked about incorporating these accessories into my everyday life.

See the full gallery on posterous

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Surrender by Mxpx   (3570 KB)
Listen on posterous

When I was 16 years old, I was in a Christian book store looking through their wall of CD's trying to discover cool Christian music.  Back then it was a great deal harder to find something that a cool (I like to think I was pretty 'hip' back then) teenager would like.  

As I was flipping through the CD's, I came across MxPx - On The Cover (iTunes Link) which was released a year earlier.  

I thought to myself, *these guys look pretty cool for Christians - I should give this a listen*.  I demoed the first song (Summer of '69) right in the store and I loved it.  I can't remember if I bought the album right then, but I think I did.  It was probably one of the first compact discs I ever purchased.

Later that year, I received Life In General (iTunes Link) for Christmas from my older brother and thus began my true love for MxPx & pop-punk in my teen years.

Needless to say, I was pretty pumped when I heard that in early 2009, MxPx are releasing On The Cover 2.  And then I was even more stoked when I saw that they were paying a tribute to the first On The Cover with the album artwork.

The album is likely to have a cover of Cheap Trick's Surrender which they've been playing at shows for the last little while.  Click Play above to hear it!!

Here is another blog post about my love for everything MxPx/Mike Herrera.

..waiting for March 10..

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I am in search of an iPhone app that allows me to read my RSS feeds while on the go & sync them to my MacBookPro so that I don't need to read them again.

I don't subscribe to that many feeds, but would really like to be able to go through a handful of them so it's not as overwhelming when I get home and boot up my computer.

I presently use the Safari Bookmarks Bar to see all my RSS Feeds, and I am completely content with that.  My ideal iPhone app would simply sync the feeds (both ways - just like it syncs the bookmarks).

It's simply not that easy.  Just yesterday Web Feeds (iTunes Store Link) was added to the App Store.  The description for the app hints at synchronization, but doesn't really say fully what type of syncing it does.  But at least it seems the closest to what I want.  I'll hold off for now to see what the reviews say about it.  The next in the running is NetNewsWire (although I don't need another app on my computer - especially for something I shouldn't need an app for).

Simply, I want and RSS feeder that syncs with Safari.  I don't presently us GoogleReader, I don't presently us NetNewsWire.  I don't have any desire to open up and Application to read RSS fees.  I just enjoy my RSS system right now - I don't really want to change.

Am I asking too much?

(I would love to hear what you use!)

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I recently downloaded the application Simplify Media (iTunes App Store or Website) and must say it's pretty nifty.

It's an app that you install on your Computer and on your iPhone which will allow you to listen to your whole iTunes library anywhere.  (not just WiFi, but 3G & Edge as well).  It pretty much negates the iPod - which is the main reason I bought the 16GB model.  But I imagine that I'll still load up my iPod with the essentials, for those times I don't leave my computer running.

I don't know how much it will drain the battery - I assume it would be a battery sucker.

Another neat feature is you can install it on up to 30 computers (start buttering up your friends now!), you can have access to all the computers you have on your list.

You can point it where your music files are (I keep mine on an external HD on my wireless network).  And you can choose to have your playlists included as well.

You have to have the app running on your computer for it to work.  I will leave it running when I head up to the cottage tomorrow to see how well it works when I can just get on the Edge network.  

Right now it's FREE, I'm astonished!  I wouldn't be surprised if it cost a few bucks (or more) soon, once people realize that this app is so fantastic.

Go download it now!

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A Long Weekend Away

We just got home this morning from 2 nights (1 day & a half) of being up at my parents cottage.  We try to go up every August long weekend as it usually coincides with my birthday.  

It was great to just do nothing and take photos.  (BOTH of which has been extremely lacking lately!)

Here are a few of the photos.  (More to follow later in the week.)

See the full gallery on posterous

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The Return

It seems that I've been MIA lately; from this blog at least.

It's been over a month since my last post here.

Don't get me wrong, just because I'm posting something doesn't mean I'm out of my 'rut of un-inspiration'. I think I've come to grip with the fact that I don't need to be inspired all the time! I need to thank candeo for that as she so simply commented on my last post telling me that even the most inspiring of writers and artists had years and years of dry spells.

Moreover, it's not that I even inspire to be a great artist or writer. I just want to me a normal guy that can update his blog when things interest me. But coming to grip with the fact that 'being down' or 'uninspired' isn't really a bad thing at all. It's just a phase...I'll be back on the horse eventually. (Thank you candeo).

But the reason I am motivated to write today is not because I have changed my outlook on life or anything groundbreaking. It sounds silly but, it's because I've found some good tools online that will probably change the way I surf for awhile.

I've started using:
Laterloop
Mento
Twshot

I started using readbag a few weeks ago. Although it's great, I just found Laterloop to be a tad bit cleaner. They are both just very simple sites that allow you to add a link to to read later. For both services I was able to add a button to my Bookmark Bar in Safari, and when I don't have the time needed to really explore a site that I'm interested in, I just need to click on the button. Although both work flawlessly, in readbag a popup comes up when you do this (it disappears by itself in 5 seconds), but in Laterloop it just does a small 'fade' of the webpage that you barely even notice...but noticable enough to know something happened. Both just use a Gmail sign-in to get started which is a bonus. One less password/login to remember. You just go to www.laterloop,com when you want to re-visit the pages you saved.

I just started using Mento just this weekend. Think StumbleUpon - but it seems a little more customizable. When on a site, just click on the button you get for your Bookmarks bar and you get the following:



You can email a link just to a certain group of friends if you want (and see who ended up viewing it)...Or just send it to your Mento page (and Twitter - if you wish - at the same time). It seems really well integrated... And reading about 'Mento Mix' / 'Channels' / 'Networks', I know there is alot more than just the top layer if I chose to make it more.

Lastly, is the simple Twshot. Say you want to post a link on Twitter, just click Twshot (again in your bookmarks bar) and it automatically sets up a link (and uses a short url) and you can add a Tweet (message) to it as well. Super Simple.

These are just a few services that have put a smile on my face with the ease of use and the thought of using them in the future. I'm looking forward to using these.

And for a couple more Screenshots: